Says he hopes incident doesn't cast dark shadow over Italy

(ANSA) - Rome, December 19 - Italian President Giorgio
Napolitano said the treatment of migrants in an emergency
assistance centre in the Southern Italian island of Lampedusa,
which hit international headlines this week for the appalling
way they were being looked after, was unacceptable.
Napolitano said he hoped the incident would not "cast a
dark shadow and discredit the humanitarian and solidarity-based
commitments of our nation".

He was speaking at an annual conference held with Italy's
top ambassadors and organized by the Italian foreign ministry.
Earlier in the day Interior Minister and Deputy Premier
Angelino Alfano said the Italian government "has decided to
terminate the contract" with the cooperative running the
Lampedusa migrant centre.
An international storm was caused this week by a video
showing naked migrants at the centre being sprayed with
disinfectants in an open-air courtyard in the cold of winter.

Alfano said the management of the centre on the Italian
island between Tunisia and Sicily, where tens of thousands of
migrants make first contact in Europe after the hazardous
crossing over the Mediterranean from North Africa every year,
was likely to be assigned to the International Red Cross.